KKR
Helsinki, Finland musician Antti Reikko, who plays guitar and sings with Johnny Superhero, has released an excellent debut solo record under the moniker koriakittenriot. His music, which is a lot like that of Elliott Smith and Sufjan Stevens, has gone largely unnoticed, but he is in the final stages of mixing and mastering a follow up to his debut LP.
KKR is a very acoustic-led indie-pop band, with a little bit of punk and new wave thrown in. The album was recorded in his bedroom, using GarageBand and two microphones.
The songs range from soaring, piano-driven gems to folky numbers. It also features some nifty guitar work, including acoustic and electric guitar, mandolin, keyboards, synthesizer and harmonica.
It’s a record that takes the giddy, instrument-stuffed pop of bands like Annuals, Decemberists and Grandaddy and turns it into something more sophisticated and serious. It’s an impressive release, and one that deserved more attention than it got.
Rich Men Poor Men Good Men is a luscious album full of twee, acoustic-led indie-pop songs that are as much about being happy and feeling content, as they are about wanting to escape the mundane. It’s the kind of music that you can listen to in your kitchen and pretend that it is the soundtrack to a romantic evening. It’s an enjoyable album, and one that should appeal to indie-rock fans who have been searching for a new take on the acoustic-led indie-pop sound that was popular in the mid-’00s.